BOYS BASKETBALL: Nottingham taps former Hamilton coach Chris Raba

HAMILTON — After taking a year off, Chris “The Baron” Raba is taking a walk around the block.

Raba, the former Hamilton boys basketball coach, was confirmed by the Hamilton Township Board of Education Wednesday night as the new head coach for Nottingham High’s boys basketball team.

“I have to thank Mr. (Mike) Giambelluca (principal), Mrs. (Dee) Taylor (athletic director) and Mr. (Frank) Ragazzo (vice-principal) to have the confidence in hiring me,” Raba said Thursday afternoon. “I really have to thank them for everything they did in helping me, and I appreciate the opportunity that they’re giving me.”

As for leaving one township school to coach at another, Raba said it was pretty much his only choice.

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“Probably the only place I’d ever coach again would be Nottingham,” the Baron said. “This was the only job I was ever interested in getting back into coaching. The year that I didn’t coach, I didn’t apply for any jobs. This was the only job I ever wanted that opened up.”

Raba will remain a teacher at Hamilton, where he coached for 10 years before stepping down after the 2010-11 season.

The Baron takes over for good friend “Irish” Mike Walsh, who resigned his coaching duties during the summer to take a vice-principal job at Nottingham.

The man who replaced Raba and also played under him, former assistant and current Hamilton head coach Jason Malloy, feels the Northstars got the right man.

“They’re definitely getting one of the best, if not the best.” Malloy exclaimed. “His credentials speak for themselves so that’s really not that far fetched of a statement.

“Having the Baron back coaching is going to be great for CVC basketball. It may not be the best news for myself and for the other coaches who will have to coach against him but it’s going to make everyone better.”

Raba, a former Hamilton player, coached the Hornets varsity for 10 years and led Hamilton to its first boys basketball state championship in 2006 when it won the NJSIAA Group III title.

He turned around a moribund Hamilton program, as before taking over in 2001, the Hornets were 4-47 the previous two seasons.

Over the next 10 years, Hamilton won 150 games and reached the Central Jersey Group III semifinals five times. In 2005, the Hornets fell to Long Branch on a buzzer beater in the Central Jersey Group III finals. From 2005-07, Hamilton became the first team in New Jersey history to upset a top-seeded team in a sectional tournament for three straight years.

Raba, who is still the Hornets freshman boys soccer coach, resigned after the 2011 season for personal reasons but never closed the door on returning. In fact, he began missing it about an hour after he stepped down.

“To be perfectly honest, I think one day I’ll coach again,” he said at the time. “For now I’m retired, but I don’t ever want to say never. Maybe not at Hamilton, but one day I’ll be back”

He’s definitely back and takes over a team that finished 8-13 last season but took fourth-seeded Manasquan to the limit before dropping a three-point decision in a Central Jersey Group III first-round game.

Raba is excited about his team, and just as enthused about returning to his profession.

“Oh definitely,” he said. “I’m more excited just to get back into coaching. I think the athletes at Nottingham are very similar to the ones at Hamilton. They’re athletic and they’re in the frame of mind now to win.

“They had a great summer under Mike and they won. Mike took a lot of lumps for the last two years when they were freshmen and sophomores. Now they’re juniors, they’re quicker, they’re stronger. If we do have any success it’s due to Mike.”

Raba inherits a team that Walsh had high hopes for, as the Northstars won the Mercer County CYO League championship this past summer with a 10-2 record. Key players on that squad included Gerald Alexis, Jamir Jenkins, Tevin Williams, Zach Mesday, Dorian Johnson, James Hendryx and Daryll Kelley.

Asked if he will tap Walsh for information, Raba said maybe somewhere down the line, but not right away.

“In my first week I’ll try to have an open mind with every kid,” he said. “I’m not sure if Mike would say anything bad, but I don’t want to hear any negative things about kids.

“I want to go in, have an open mind, try to get to know the kids. During the course of the season I will ask for advice. At beginning, I think the fairest thing for myself and the Nottingham kids is to find things out for myself.”